Elgin [key]. <1> City (2020 pop. 114,797), Cook and Kane counties, NE Ill., on the Fox River; inc. 1854. Elgin is a railroad, trade, and industrial city marked by a steady population growth. Corn and soybeans are grown and electrical and electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, and household appliances are manufactured. The Elgin Watch Company (est. 1864) was based in the city until 1964, when its original factory was closed down. Judson College is there. <2> City (2020 pop. 1,599), Kershaw co., central S.C.; inc. 1907. The town was originally named Jeffers after its first postmaster (1898) and then renamed Blaney after the entrepreneur who brought the railroad to the area. The Elgin Watch company was encouraged to relocate its manufacturing facility to the area in 1962, so the town was renamed once again; the company ceased all operations there in 1970. <3> City (2020 pop. 9,784), Bastrop and Travis cos., central Tx.; inc. 1901. The town was established under the name of Glasscock when the railroad passed through in 1871; it was subsequently renamed for the local land commissoner a year later. Brick and sausage making, coal mining, and cotton farming were major occupations through much of the later 19th-20th centuries. Since the 1980s, it has become a residential community for Austin.
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